La Cueva Restaurant

What a great place! Genuine fine recipes used for generations in this family, originally from Guanajuato. Family owned for 40 years, they use healthy and fresh ingredients to make fresh and delicious sauces. Fine cuisine in a casual atmosphere. Worth a special trip. more

I have read ALL the reviews and some seem like one time incidents handled poorly but some right on the mark!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been coming to La Cueva for 10+ years and the service has remained the same (unappreciative and cold).The mom would occassionally give dirty looks as if customers weren't welcome but I came to ignored her and continued to enjoy my food. Until about 3 years ago.I thing I love about Mexican food is the quality and price. But at La Cueva, the menu prices keep increasing but the food portions / quality are decreasing? So you would expect if the pricing goes up so does the quality, service and automosphere. Correct? But it has not. The enchiladas are 3inches wide with minimal cheese inside (I measured it once) and the burritos are all tortilla. The green chile is good but just water on the weekdays and hot / flavorful on the weekends. I have had occassions where my food order was just wrong (either something was in it or it wasn't as I asked). On neither events did the owner (Molly, mom or son) acknowledge and offered an apology/comp the food. One one occasion, my daughter's order was wrong and my husband told Molly. Molly called her cooking staff "" a stupid broad"" and walked off; never apologizing (as if we were to agree with her abusive language). I personally found her comment unprofessional and disrespectful to her staff member. SO, if you feel like getting some good mexican food; come here but only on the weekends. Don't expect ANY customer service. Bring your own positive outlook and LEAVE, not expecting anything else. \r \r Pros: Good food\r Cons: Poor Customer Service, Hit or miss on food quality, Small portions, Expensive more

My family has been eating at la cueva for over 30 years, i ate guacamole there for my first time at 6 months. I love la cueva, i think of the Nunez family and some of the staff as an addition to my own family. it curdles my blood to see what these people are saying about la cueva and it's proprietors. the food is great the staff is friendly, its an independently owned restaurant thats gone from a hole in the wall to a relatively well known place with many faithful customers and a lovely atmosphere. my favorite meals include, but are not limited to the la cueva combination, chicken fajitas, and chicken mole enchiladas more

My husband an I love La Cueva - you really can't go wrong. Try the Mole, its the best in town!!! more

My wife and I were customers since the days when the center blue section was the restaurant. We went, faithfully every Friday. Two years ago on a Friday afternoon we arrived at La Cueva at about 4:30 PM, planning to meet our grown son and his girl friend. The restaurant was not crowded at that time so my wife and I were seated right away. We chose to wait to order until our son came but we ordered drinks. About five minutes after our drinks arrived, Molly's mother came to our table and gave us a chewing out for sitting at a table before all of our party had arrived (there still empty tables) this was in front of those in the restaurant. We decided to leave and I asked the waitress from the drink bill. She felt so bad about our treatment, she bought our drinks. We have not returned, and we have yet to find good Mexican food someplace else in Aurora nor Denver. Pros: The food is good Cons: The treatment of customers is not good more

This restaurant has become a sore point with me. What seems like generations ago now, this place used to have top notch food and great service. Now it is a broken shell of what it used to be. Food is possibly the worse in town, service is completely abysmal. These people deserve a smack in the face for letting a good spot for food go under so badly. All that is left is for the people who used to enjoy this place to now watch the clueless owners finish flushing it down the toilet. And at this point, I will feel nothing but complete and total satisfaction to bear witness to this mistake finishing itself off. I wish Molly the worst for letting this happen. Your family would be proud! Pros: Distant memories of good meals once enjoyed Cons: That this place still finds a reason to open its doors more

This place used to be good, now it is awful! They (as in every person who works there) do not care about the customer...our waitress spilled a tray of margaritas down my mother-in-laws back and then blamed US!!! WTF! The food used to be good, now it comes out cold and soggy. If you ask for a crisp taco shell you get a dirty look...Taco Bell does a better job. I have eaten at the place a dozen times prior and I can tell you this...I WOULD NOT LET MY WORST ENEMY EAT HERE! If you do not believe me, go there for drinks on a Friday night at 6PM and see how empty the place is!!! DO NOT DO IT TO YOURSELF! STAY AWAY! Pros: cold beer Cons: everything else more

I have never been treated so horribly by any one in my life. Seriously.\r \r I received terrible service one night after being a faithful customer for numerous years. I thought that mgmt should know so I asked to talk to the manager. It was the brother (I can't remember his name - his sister Molly is a co-owner). When I explained the service problems, he proceeded to treat me so horribly it took me by surprise. One of the statements he made to me was: ""who do you think you are? You are nobody."" \r I was a faithful customer until that point.\r \r Pros: Food was great Cons: The owner more

What can make a really great restaurant go so far amiss? La Cueva was once one of the better places to eat in town. The menu, the food, the selection -- the food was fresh, the salsa and sauces were spicy and flavorful. It was all good. But I was there last night with five other people and we were all disappointed. The salsa was all onions and little else. In fact, carelessly prepared onions were the item of the day. My fish--which appeared to be a poorly prepared fish stick out of the Costco freezer section--was doused in fried onions and a salsa that could easy be beat by anything in a Taco Bell condiment station. The sad thing is: the service was still friendly and tried to be accommodating. But whatever was going on in La Cueva's kitchen was very poor in quality. Pros: Used To Be The Best Mexican Restaurant in Town Cons: Now It's The Worst Mexican Restaurant In Town more

This mexican restaurant just outside of denver was probably the best I've found in Colorado. Great spice to all the dishes I have tried and delicious margs. The service was decent, although, they couldn't keep up with how quickly I was downing the chips and salsa! That's probably not their fault! I recommend this to everyone, they always like it too. It's a little bit of a drive for those of us downtown, but well worth it! Pros: everything Cons: What are the drawbacks? more

I'm a hardcore mexican food lover who moved here from Austin. There were so many awesome restaurants there and Denver was a bit of a disappointment until I found La Cueva. This place has exceptional food and some of the nicest folks working there. They have by far the best tasting green chili and really good combinations. I am a vegetarian and they have so much I can eat. The salsa and chips are incredible.\r I am so glad I discovered this place! more

I frequent a number of favorite restaurants around the city with sushi being my favorite cuisine. In the last 20 years I've found several acceptable Mexican restaurants in the Denver area but none that showed the detail that you might see in a good restaurant in San Antonio or Albuquerque. Today (7/7/08) I stumbled by accident into La Cueva and was hugely surprised by virtually everything that we ordered. I feel that Chili Relenos are always a good measure of a Mexican restaurant and these were exemplary. The staff was charming and the house salsa which is heavy on onions as I like, was good enough to take home. In the 6 hours since we left there we've referred it to 3 other people already. Job well done!! Steve more

I had been a patron since I was a kid (1977). I had noticed slow and sometimes cold service from the wait staff in recent years. I was willing to overlook the bad service because of the excellent food. Until two visits ago! I brought my credit card up to Molly (one of the owners) to pay (they neglected to pick up my credit card long after I finished eating). Molly had problems getting the machine to print. I tried to make the usual small talk with her. I asked her how she liked her new home in the newly built neighborhood. In her frustration with the credit card machine she basically told me to shut up! Even in front of a couple of her wait staff! To say the least tension was extremely high. When I finally settled up with her she made some lame excuse about her day being hard. She never apologized. I returned two more times and she never apologized. I would have returned if only she would have apologized. Why is it so hard for some people to simply apologize when they are wrong? I couple of visits before Molly went off on me I witnessed her go off on another patron. \r \r \r \r Pros: Great food if you can stand the terrible service Cons: Terrible service more

I own a business and hosted a meeting at La Cueva - I have done this many times. On 5/15/08, as I was waiting for some of our guests to arrive, both owners of La Cueva literally verbally abused both me and my employees. The owners alleged we were hosting our meeting here and were not going to order any food. We were called treated with incredible disrespect and were charged initially for waters and chips/salsa. Both owners were terrribly mean and angry without any real reason. After we ordered food (and yes, we always order food when at restaurants), one of our appetizers had a dead critter on it. \r \r I will never go back to this place either. I suspect the restaurant is struggling financially because the owners behavior was truly sad. I have hosted over 25 meals at this restaurant for the last 3 years and I will never go back again. The food was bad and I cannot believe the level of disrepect we received for no reason. Pros: I'm sure the beer is cold - I did not order any though Cons: Too many to discuss - do not go here. more

I have been going to La Cueva for years. Although it's a bit of a drive, I find it more than worth it. There is no better green chili period. And they also offer it vegeterian style, how many mexican restaurants do this???\r Everything on the menu is delicious, authentic and spicy. I am completely addicted and go there as often as we can. The kids even love it and they are so kind to us.\r Whenever I read a review about them that isn't 5 stars I have to realize these are not people who appreciate authentic and fantastic mexican food made from the heart. Too bad for them. For everyone else who absolutely love La Cueva, I'm with you. It truly is the best. Pros: everything Cons: they close too early more

We used to love this place but not any more. It has seriously gone down hill. Food and service are totally lame. The green chile is like water. So sad because it used to be so good. Cons: lackluster food and service more

We were very excited and curious to try this place after seeing some of the outstanding reviews. While the atmosphere was fun and festive and definitely added to the experience, the food was little better than average. I'm a huge Mexican/Southwest/New Mexican food fan and was hoping this would be the best I'd ever had, but it was not. The nachos were, actually, no better than Taco Bell and the quantity was miniscule. The entrees were fairly tasty, but certainly more average than many reviews led us to believe. The best parts were definitely the atmosphere and the margaritas. Pros: Great, festive atmosphere, margaritas Cons: Slow service more

This little place is a good place to go, however they have somewhat of a smaller menu. Their food is authentic and the service is pretty good, but their green chile is untouchably (spicy) HOT!!! I got their 1/2 & 1/2 last time and came out breathen' like a dragon. I can handle my hot food, but this was just too spicy to even taste the flavor. We thought the restaruant was a little pricey, especially considering the neighborhood. Pros: Close to home, decent food Cons: Parking, Pricey more

Sure, the parking is a little scarce (better since the new library went in next door), and the service is a bit slow, but we keep going back over and over again for the FOOD. The mole is my favorite; my family loves the enchiladas swimming in spicy chili. We all live by the chunky guac and yummy salsa, which we scoop up with warm fresh chips. And that service -- fresh faced young people from the old country keep our chips coming and our drinks refreshed while we wait for the food, and the owners stop by to chat like the old friends they have become. It is a comfortable place for families and couples, and it is a real boon to the neighborhood (which is much on the rise, thanks to the owners). Go early or on a week night to avoid the crowds. Pros: guacamole, margaritas, family atmosphere Cons: crowds, slow service, yuppy centered bar more

After hearing how great La Cueva is for years, I've been disappointed both times. The service is friendly but horribly slow, and it was after the lunch rush. The food was not good. The green chile had a decent bite but not much flavor and so watery it made everything soggy. The homeade tortillas were very good but unfortunately arrived after the rellenos were gone. The prices are high for the quality of food also. Surely this is not the same food that won all the awards on the walls. La Cueva got it's second chance and blew it. There's much better (and cheaper) mexican food in Denver and Aurora. Pros: decor Cons: slow, expensive, blah food more